Poets and Saints
…and the moms who try to be both.Archive for Travel
Zoo Day
We went to the zoo for the first time this season. We gorged ourselves on sunshine, exotic animals, and family time.
It was a good relaxing day, and provided some much needed family fun.
Plus, our zoo got the prestigious ranking of 5th in the nation in Parenting magazine. Not bad for a small city zoo up against the big city ones! It makes me feel glad to have so many opportunities so close and to make use of what we have in this town.
Home is all about making use of the resources you’re given, whether you live in the city or country. It’s about embracing those opportunities and creating them into special family memories.
Last Year’s Surprises
Last year I made a list of things I wanted to do in 2008. You can read about it on my former blog site here. I am a person who likes making lists, in contrast to my husband who really dislikes it. List-making is a chore to him; to me, it is a way to feel like I have accomplished something, no matter how small. List-making is a way of reflecting on small accomplishments and measuring the year in events, rather than time. I accomplished most of things off my list last year. Some were easy to do (like getting a bell for my bike), others, like finishing my daughter’s dress, required a lot of patience as I got my sewing machine fixed not once, but twice in order to complete the project. The dress was finished rather late–October–but my daughter didn’t care. She was thrilled mama made her a dress and now thinks that whenever I am sewing, I am making her a dress.
I’m still thinking about this year’s list for 09. I don’t feel rushed to have it in by a certain date, although the New Year’s push certainly gives me a good start. (I’ll have my 2009 list out in a week or so) As I reflect on 2008, here are surprising things that weren’t on the list, but made for a good year.
The list of surprises from 2008:
1. Getting the award for Indiana’s emerging playwright
2. The “Zoo Tour” Vacation. The Pittsburgh and Toledo zoos in one trip. Plus fun with the extended family and a little bit of camping thrown in. This was our vacation to save money but it ended up being a great time enjoying summer together for less. Who says expensive vacations are better?
3. The Backyard Bash Party–hot dogs and a kiddie pool, a bunch of friends and a wild time.
4. Publication in MotherVerse magazine.
5. Outdoor concerts in the park, the library, the mall. We mark up the calendar with summer bands, pack a blanket and go. Did I mention they were free?
6. Friday night ice cream. When there’s nothing else to do in the summer, there’s always ice cream at the local ice cream stand. My favorite? Soft serve twist in a cone or a Boston cooler (vanilla ice cream and ginger ale)
7. Bike rides around the lake. Even if my gears are broken, I love my big vintage bike seat and my bell. (All I need is one of those baskets on the front and I will be a real old lady.)
8. Pumpkin picking. We go to a pumpkin farm and pick out our pumpkins. Two carving pumpkins and one beautiful baking pumpkin. For Thanksgiving we used the pumpkin for pie.
9. Finally finishing our bathroom painting project. The last of the wallpaper comes down. We are wallpaper-free!
10. Dressing up for Halloween. I was a doctor, my husband was a gladiator and my daughter, a fairy. Dressing up is a family affair and a fun way for two theatre people to play with costumes.
11. Campfire night and silly songs. My husband is a great silly song singer. Add a fire and some smores and it’s a great time.
12. Sharing the family songs–we handed out “family songbooks” for Christmas. It is a delight to finally get these old tunes on paper so I can actually learn them, instead of half-sing them because I don’t know the words. There is something special about getting family traditions on paper too. It’s a way of passing on something to my children that might be lost otherwise.
There were so many other great memories, both planned and unplanned from last year. The family camping trip was hot fun (in the 90’s and no AC) which means we spent a lot of time trying to keep cool (waterfights, the beach). Then there was a little jaunt up to Michigan, strawberry picking, hayrides, and more. So much goodness in one year.
2009’s list will be on it’s way soon. But list or not, I’ll plan to be surprised.
Three
A week of snapshots:
While standing in line to vote, my daughter turns to an elderly gentlemen behind her in a wheelchair and sings “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” The whole line gets quiet and listens. She finishes the song and people cheer and clap because when you are two, people cheer and clap no matter what you do. I am amazed that she doesn’t get embarrassed and hide her face in my legs like she usually does when I ask her to sing a song. The song was her idea; so she sings it without hesitation, without embarrassment. Oh the beauty of not knowing failure, of not knowing the words “I can’t.” In her world, she can fly.
I am at the doctor’s office getting a routine checkup and flipping through a magazine. There is a young couple in front of me and I know why they are there without asking. There is only one reason why a twenty-something man and women go to the doctor’s office together. I hear the lab tech congratulating them and then she asks a question I cannot hear. The man responds, “she noticed!” and he is holding his barren finger on his left hand. The third one. The wedding ring one. There is no ring. ”We’ve been together a long time,” he says. I wonder what it means to bring a baby in this world with no official commitment, no vow that says for better or for worse. There is always the hope that this baby will change things, that the couple will make a commitment for the long haul. There is always that hope.
I am listening to an Israeli song from The Idan Raichel Project and it immediately takes me back to Israel, sitting in a hotel in a kibbutz watching the Middle East’s version of MTV. We are close to the Dead Sea, Masada, and Palestinian territory, but I have no idea where we really are. It is the bane of bus trips: I am ignorant of where we are and how we got there. The night is peaceful except for the plague of wild cats hanging around the kibbutz. They keep the rats under control, I am told. There are wild cats everywhere in Israel, even in Jerusalem, popping out of bushes, chasing each other along sidewalks. Certainly cats are more tolerable than rats but I am not used to so many wild ones appearing without notice and disappearing the same way. The Israelis don’t even notice them. They are as forgotten as the sparrow. That’s when the song changes and I am back in the present. Israel is gone. A memory forgotten, like the cats and the sparrows.
